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Icelandic pianist VŪkingur ”lafsson emerged from considerable popularity in his native country, signing with Deutsche Grammophon and releasing an attractive album of music by Philip Glass. With his second album for the label, Johann Sebastian Bach, he ups the stakes; the title itself announces a grand ambition to reimagine the compositions of the first master of keyboard music. ”lafsson rightly points out that the Bach canon is constantly changing, and indeed many of the pieces on his program are not very familiar. Sample ...
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Icelandic pianist VŪkingur ”lafsson emerged from considerable popularity in his native country, signing with Deutsche Grammophon and releasing an attractive album of music by Philip Glass. With his second album for the label, Johann Sebastian Bach, he ups the stakes; the title itself announces a grand ambition to reimagine the compositions of the first master of keyboard music. ”lafsson rightly points out that the Bach canon is constantly changing, and indeed many of the pieces on his program are not very familiar. Sample the Aria variata, BWV 989, both to hear a marvelous Bach piece that's not one of the common ones, and to experience ”lafsson's piano style, detailed and pianistic without, for the most part, being Romantic. He's a compelling pianist who can take an audience through a wide range of sounds, and his Bach demands attention. He also tries to climb the Bach mountain and plant a new flag at the top, and here he may overreach. ”lafsson ignores Bach's tendency to think in sets, and he picks...
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